Infected

A paradigm-shifting exploration of the politics of health around the world, by an award-winning scientist

"Zaman's optimism . . . is welcome. . . . His sense of urgency is irresistible." --The Wall Street Journal on Muhammad H. Zaman's The Biography of Resistance

In this groundbreaking new book, award-winning scientist and author Muhammad H. Zaman delves into the history of infectious disease and related policies in the United States since the dawn of germ theory, from cholera and meningitis to the recent COVID crisis, to show how vulnerable communities have been harmed in the name of research or disease control.

Infected is the epic story of compromised doctors, politicians, and the heroes who challenged them. Zaman shows that exclusionary immigration acts, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the development of biological weapons, the fake vaccination campaign in Pakistan, and the rhetoric around the COVID-19 pandemic are all parts of the same deeper story--one of medical science intertwined with power and politics.

This is a story that continues today, in poor nations that have long been impacted by foreign policy, and at the borders, where asylum seekers are denied lifesaving medicines regardless of the party in power. Melding science and history, Infected presents infection as a key to understanding our recent past, present, and future.